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Posts Tagged ‘Living with the Land’

Hi, Everyone! Welcome to the Best Week Ever here at Walt Disney World. This week we’ll be visiting Epcot to test FastPass+, stopping by Downtown Disney for some delicious dining, and finishing up at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I can’t believe I fit so much fun into one weekend! You know I do it all for you, so let’s get moving!

We arrived at Epcot in time for rope drop, which we’re doing less and less now that FastPass+ is working so well. Since we were really just there to test the system and shop, we didn’t run to Test Track or Soarin’. Instead we sauntered up to Spaceship Earth and confidently scanned our MagicBands… and were turned away! For the first time since using the system I was told my FastPass+ wasn’t there and I needed to stop by a kiosk or join the standby line. Up to this point we’ve always been allowed into the FastPass+ line on the honor system. Since it was so early we were able to ride with a walk on wait, but want to hear about how our trip to the FastPass+ kiosk went? Be sure to click to read more!

Do you love Living With The Land at Epcot? I don’t know what it is about this quiet, little boat ride that holds my attention. Maybe it’s the fact that it’s one of the few attractions that still feels like the Epcot from my childhood. The Behind The Seeds Tour at Epcot offers guests the chance to walk through the greenhouses seen on the boat ride and take a closer look. While just taking a stroll through this location is worth the price of admission, the tour offers some great “edutainment” about the future of gardening.

To sign up you simply need to purchase tickets at the desk in the Soarin’ boarding area. We’ve done the first tour of the day in the past for fear they would sell out. However, this time we showed up just 30 minutes before the last tour of the day and were able to join with no issue. Then we just had to meet back by the desk five minutes before our tour time. The below information contains lots of spoilers about the tour. If you’d like to be surprised, you might want to scroll down to the bottom past the numbered sections.

The tour begins when your guide whisks you to a backstage location to explain the tour rules. First, guests are encouraged to ask as many questions as they can. Your tour guide is normally an intern here on the college program with a shocking amount of botany knowledge. I was very impressed with our guide and the frequent questions she was able to answer! Rule number two is that photography is not only allowed, it’s encouraged! I was excited about that one because I often get lectures on tours because they see my big camera coming. It was nice to be welcomed despite the fact that we were in backstage areas. The final rule is the most important: do not touch any plants. This one seemed obvious to me, but what I hadn’t thought of the reason they make this request. In the greenhouse they have exotic plants from all over the world that many people have never been exposed to, and likely will never be exposed to again. The Behind The Seeds Tour at Epcot is not a great time to find out you’re wildly allergic to some rare plant! So that no touching request is just as much to protect you as it is the plants.

After a few months of secrecy, the new show scene toward the end of Living with the Land has been revealed. It features a plant nutrient system which comes directly from live fish. Essentially, plants being fed from a fish tank.

The Living with the Land boat ride at the Land pavilion was scheduled to reopened from refurbishment on Sunday the 17th, but will reopen on Tuesday, September 19th, due to delays. The conversion process from live cast members on the boats giving speil to an automated speil has apparently taken longer then expected.

Additionally, we have learned that Fastpass will now only be utilized at the attraction during periods of peak attendance. The new automated speil should allow for more boats on the track and signifigantly reduce the general wait time at the attraction. Touring plans for Epcot may need to be altered in the future if the change is drastic.

Disney maintains that the change is not a loss of personal interaction and human-touch from the attraction but rather “building upon cutting edge technology that already exists within the venue.”

Epcot’s Land pavilion’s boat ride “Living with the Land” will be closed from August 20 to September 16. We’ve heard the purpose of this rehab is to replace the human tour guides with automated, recorded spiels. We’ve also heard the FASTPASS machines may be removed.